World Briefing | Pacific: Tuvalu: Country Ready To Pack Up

Published: July 20, 2001

The nine-square-mile island nation, one-tenth the size of Washington, D.C., has asked New Zealand and Australia to provide shelter for its 11,000 people as rising sea levels threaten to engulf their homes. The government hopes to resettle its entire population before the nation's nine low-lying coral atolls -- the highest point is 16 feet above sea level -- become uninhabitable, which could be in just 50 years. Tuvalu said that New Zealand had agreed to help but that there had been no guarantees from Australia.